Method of treating subterranean wells.



E..N. BREHUNG & A. PICK.

METHOD OF TREATING SUBTERRANEAN WELLS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. l0. |914.

PatentedSept. 7, 1915.

'EDWARD \NICKLAS BREITJ'NG, OF MARQUETQLE, MICHIGAN, AND ALFRED PICK, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y., .ASSIGNOBS TO SUBTERRANEAN HEATER CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION F NEW YORK.

METHOD OF TREATING SUBTERRANEAN WELLS.

specification of Letters raient.

Patented Sept. t, i915.

' Application mea' February 1o, i914.. serial no. 817,746.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWARD NIGKLAS BREITUNG, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident' of Marquette city, county of Marquette, and State'of Michigan, and ALFRED PICK, a subject of the Crown of Austria, and a resident of New York, county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvelo ments in Methods of Treating Subterranean Wells, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

Our invention relates to methods of treating subterranean wells for the purpose of increasing their yield of mineral substances from the earth.

ln carrying out this invention we utilize a heater of any suitable type such for example as that disclosed in the patent No. 1,082,971 granted to Alfred Pick, one of the applicants herein, on the 30th day of December, 1913.

rIhe singlel figure 4of the accompanying drawing is a diagrammatic view of a subterranean well equipped with suitable apparatus for practising our invention.

-The specific object of this invention is to cause the material in a subterranean well, rpreferably after having been heated, toreenter the openings of the strata, thereby clearing the passages bywhich the material enters the well and conveying heat produced by a heater in the well to considerable distances from the hole. ToV accomplish this end we close the casing head Cof the well A as shown in the drawing, by means of a cap D and provide air-tight packing P in holes therein for the supporting cable L and au the electric cable conductors -y leading to the heater near the bottom of the well. The pipe connection a connects the casing head to the compressor F, and the pipe connection a of the casing head has attached a pressure t5 gage J to indicate the pressure in the well. The valve i controls the passage b directly between the well and a gas main, for the `purpose of releasing the pressure, and in s order to allow the gas to return back to a tu low pressure gas line E. The system of operation we apply is as follows :--upon lowering the heater K to, or near the bottom ofthe hole of the well by means of the cable L, together with 'the electric cables, heating proceeds for several hours, whereupon the compressor F is set into operation, forcing gas into the well until the pressure rises to and above the natural rock pressure of the well, thus causing the heated Huid to return back. into the rock, which lHuid then communlcates its heat to its surrounding strata. The valve i is opened and the gas from the well returns to the gas main, the natural rock pressure will force the oil, now at lower temperature, back into the hole to be heated again. This operation may be repeated as many tlmes as advisable, and it is evident that by means of this process, heat may be hloiliveyed to considerable distances from the ln the drawing, the arrows 1, 2 and 3 diagrammatically` illustrate the progress ofV heating the strata at the rst, second and third,-compression and releasing-of 4the gas in and from the well. It is evident that the heat is transmitted rst from the heater vto the luid,-then after compression, from the fluid to the surrounding medium. After releasing the pressure, the fluid entering the hole is heated again, while at the same time, new fluid taking its place will receive the heat from the strata which vheat was previously communicated-thereto by the oil now in the hole.

The distance of penetration of heat from the hole into the strata is dependent not only upon the time of the entire heating period by the heater, but also upon the number of alternate changes of pressure as herein above described.

When a vgas-pumped well is treated the material in the well is heated while it is subjected to the suction of the pump and the pressure increased to drive the heated material into the surrounding medium by admitting atmospheric pressure to the well. It is only necessary to get alternate changes of pressure in any suitable manner and to apply the heat at such time that the pressure conditions are such that the material to be heated is in the well.

We intend no limitations other than those in the following claims.

What we claim is:

1. The method of treating subterranean wells which consists of heating a closed well and alternately forcing a gas into the well under pressure and releasing the pressure.

2.1\The method of treating subterranean wells which consists of heating the material inthe well, applying a continued artificial pressure to the matenal greater than the natural pressure thereon for a substantial period of time to thereby force said heated material into the openings of the surrounding medium and in then releasing the artificial pressure to allow the material to again enter the well.

3. The method of treating oil wells which consists of closing the well, heating the oil in the well alternately forcing a gas into the well under pressure to force the heated oil EDWARD Mortis DDDITUNG.

ALFRED Hex.

Witnesses.:

R. B. BEcHEALLEo', R. M. DE Von. 

